The Victorian government needs to be more transparent about the number of healthcare workers who have been infected with Covid-19 in their workplace and should urgently roll out mandatory mask-fitting for frontline health staff, the president of the state branch of the Australian Medical Association has said, as hundreds of health workers remain in quarantine due to exposure to the virus.

Associate Prof Julian Rait said while the premier, Daniel Andrews, and health minister, Jenny Mikakos, had repeatedly stated that the majority of health workers had acquired their infections in the community “that shouldn’t obscure the fact that some cases were acquired in the workplace”.

There are 429 Victorian healthcare workers who have been infected with the virus and 164 of those cases are active, but Guardian Australia revealed hundreds more are now in quarantine awaiting test results after being exposed.

While other states, including South Australia, require public hospitals implement compulsory mask fit-testing for all frontline staff, this is not the case in Victoria, Rait said.

“I’ve called for the government to insist upon fit-testing, and also I’ve asked them to escalate the standards of PPE [personal protective equipment] in situations where doctors or nurses may be dealing with cases of known suspected Covid-19,” he said. “In some situations there has just been the requirement to use masks and gloves but in many of those situations you’d be better protected with surgical n95 masks and a face shield,” he said.

“So there has been a request from the AMA [Australian Medical Association] Victoria for those situations to be better identified and proper PPE use be reinforced, but equally we have asked for greater clarity around the mechanisms by which healthcare workers are being infected.”

Rait supported calls for a national real-time database of healthcare worker infections overseen by an independent review panel.

“We want transparency,” he said. “We still don’t have transparency around the true numbers of cases being acquired in the workplace despite assurances we would be in receipt of that information.”

Guardian Australia asked a spokeswoman for the health minister, Jenny Mikakos, for the breakdown of health worker infections acquired in the workplace versus the community, and whether health staff would receive additional training on PPE use, but was told a response to the questions would not be ready by the end of Monday.

In the meantime, Rait said doctors were feeling anxious.

“There’s a high degree of anxiety,” he said. “I’ve spoken to many people in emergency departments today and they’re very concerned because aged care is generating very sick patients not only requiring hospital but intensive care, and some are dying,” he said. “There’s all this apprehension and also more generally worry in hospitals about our capacity to cope should things escalate.”

Rait said hospitals across the state had the capacity to treat up to 1,750 cases per day for 10 days before overwhelming intensive care – provided there were enough staff who were well and not suffering burnout.

“But that number of cases is not the greatest risk, the greater risk is healthcare workers in highly skilled areas like ICU and ED not being available even if the bed numbers are there, because they’re infected or a close contact of someone who is. I think, like many, I feel pretty tired right now, I feel very fatigued. We haven’t had much rest in six months.”

The secretary of the Victorian branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, Lisa Fitzpatrick, said it was a time of uncertainty for nurses, midwives and personal care workers. She said a key concern for the union was how members would afford to live if they have to isolate for 14 days.

“We’ve been working to represent nurses and carers in the private acute and private aged care sectors to secure special paid leave in line with what’s offered in the public health sector,” Fitzpatrick said.

“The key concern we are dealing with right now is members who work across multiple residential aged care facilities due to casualisation are not going to be able to pay their bills if they can only work for one nursing home. We’re working through these issues with employers to make sure the risk is reduced to residents [and] nurses and carers can earn a weekly income that covers the bills and all nursing homes can continue to fill their roster.”